The Valley View Community Unified School District 365U administration held first-round interviews for a new superintendent Saturday while parents and members of the teachers union picketed outside.

The district announced its search for a new superintendent July 15.

Current Superintendent Dr. Keith Wood is set to retire June 30, 2026, after spending 15 years at the district as a principal and superintendent.

A news release from the district said that community survey results were used to screen potential candidates and that second-round interviews will take place in the coming weeks, with the administration hoping to reach a final decision by the end of 2025.

Even as the district is looking to bring on a new leader, current employees were protesting a stalemate in contract negotiations.

About 30 parents and teachers picketed outside the administrative center, 800 W. Normantown Road in Romeoville, to demand the district’s teachers and support staff receive a fair contract.

Valley View Council 604 of the American Federation of Teachers has been negotiating with the district since January and saw its contract expire in mid-August, just as the school year started.

The staff voted to authorize a strike on Aug. 27-28, with 96% of the union’s approval, and teachers could walk out as soon as Sept. 15.

“It’s sad and it’s frustrating,” said Union President Jared Ploger. “Of course, we want to avoid a strike, but at some point we have to advocate for ourselves and for our students.”

One of the major issues holding up the negotiations is a proposal by the district to add 20 minutes to the school day at the district’s two high schools, Bolingbrook High School and Romeoville High School.

While no detailed plan has been released to incorporate the extra 20 minutes, it likely would be added to the start of the school day to avoid logistical issues for buses and pickups with other schools. This change would bring the student start time to 7:10 a.m. and require teachers to be at the buildings before 7 a.m., something Ploger said students, parents and teachers oppose.

“This negotiation shouldn’t just be about those 20 minutes, but the school has tied it to them,” said Ploger. “All their proposals are all-or-nothing package deals, but they haven’t done enough groundwork on this proposal or gotten any feedback from the stakeholders. We’re hearing unsolicited opinions from students every day asking us to keep fighting because they don’t want to lose that sleep when they’re trying to work and do extracurriculars.”

Ploger added that, in addition to lost sleep, the earlier schedule would create a problem for teachers with young children who would need to find child care, as even the district-provided daycare programs do not start until after teachers would need to be dropping their children.

“We’re really close on a lot of things,” Ploger said. “Our money requests are a little higher, but we’re within a percentage on most things, which isn’t a lot to overcome.”

The additional time comes with its own complications from a financial standpoint, as Ploger said. If the time was to be added, teachers would want to be paid for it, in addition to raises for cost of living over the course of the contract, something he said the district’s offers are not adequately addressing.

“What they’re saying they can afford doesn’t equal inflation and the extra time,” said Ploger. “At this point, it’s not even an argument about money. We know they can’t afford it, and it’s an inconvenience, so we just want to take this off the table.”

Beyond the schedule, Ploger said another sticking point is a proposed district request that would allow them to renegotiate raises after the contract has been finalized.

“They’re afraid that the Department of Education is going to back out of funding, but we don’t want to get stuck with this start change and end up losing the raises we negotiated for,” Ploger said.

While the district did not return a request for comment on the schedule and contract issues, it did say in a news release that it “remains committed to reaching an amicable resolution that avoids disruption to the community and student education.”

The teachers union and the district are scheduled to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday evening.